Sir James Berners Knight

  Noted events in his life were:

• Web Reference: History of Parliment Online.
Sir James Berners was born West Horsley, 8 Mar. 1361, 2^nd son and heir of Sir John Berners (d.1361) of Berners Hall and West Horsley, by his wife Katherine St. Omer. He married Anne (d. Easter 1403), daughter of John Barew, 3s. Knighted by Oct. 1381.

• Background Information. ¹²³⁷
After Sir John Berner's death John Chichester, alderman of London, was in possession of the manor of Iseldon Berners for eight years, followed by John de Kingsford. Both held by unknown title, while John Berner's son James was a minor, [Cal. Inq. p.m. xiv, pp. 255-6.] and in 1375 the manor was taken into the king's hands until it could be rightly disposed of. [Cal. Fine R. 1369-77, 318] Sir James Berners was in possession by 1386 but forfeited the manor on his impeachment in 1388. [Cal. Inq. Misc. v, p. 15; Cal. Pat. 1385-9, 548] The manor, then consisting of a ruined messuage, 243 a., rents, and works, [Cal. Inq. Misc. v, pp. 15-16] was granted in 1389 to John Innocent and John Nottingham, the king's clerks, for ten years, paying 20 marks a year. [Cal. Fine R. 1383-91, 283] In 1391, however, it was found that the wardship of James's son and heir Richard should go to the bishop, reserving to the Crown the fee simple when the entail should end.[Cal. Pat. 1388-92, 443; Cal. Close, 1389-92, 405-7] In 1405-6 the manor, said to be held in chief, was settled on Richard Berners (d. 1412) and his wife Isabel.

~A History of the County of Middlesex, Volume VIII, pp. 51-57

• Background Information. ¹²⁷⁹
In 1336 Berwick Berners was conveyed by John son of Edmund de Berners to John son of Ralph de Berners. [Feet of F. Essex, iii, 39] In 1381-2 it was being administered by the bailiff of Sir John de Gildesburgh. The net value of the manor was then £1 10s. 11d. It had been granted to Gildesburgh for life by Sir John de Berners. [Cal. Pat. 1388-92, 150] Sir John's son Sir James de Berners, a knight of the king's chamber, was executed in 1388 as an evil counsellor of Richard II. [A. Steel, Richard II, 143, 157, 161] In 1389 Anne widow of James was granted the manor for 500 marks. [Cal. Pat. 1388-92, 150] Like West Horsley it passed with Anne to her second husband John Bryan and subsequently to her son Richard de Berners. [Feet of F. Essex, iii, 238; cf. V.C.H. Surrey, iii, 354] Richard died in 1417 and was succeeded by his daughter Margery, who married as her first husband John Fereby. John and Margery were holding manor courts at Berwick Berners in 1427-40. After John's death Margery married John Bourchier, who was later summoned to Parliament as a peer and is thus held to have become Lord Berners. Berwick Berners passed to Bourchier's grandson and heir , Lord Berners, who was holding it in 1508.

~A History of the County of Essex, Volume IV, pp. 190-193

• Background Information. ¹²³⁵
Sir James Berners, Knight, beheaded 11 Richard II (1388). Sir James was the son of Sir John Berners and his wife Katharine St. Omer, and the father of Sir Richardare Berners.

Berner Pedigree from The Historical Antiquities of Hertfordshire, Volume I, pp. 315-316

James married Anne Barew, daughter of John Barew and Unknown.¹¹⁷⁴ (Anne Barew died on 15 Apr 1403 ¹¹⁷⁴.)